TEXTBOOK FUND-LOCAL TAX RATE

CENTS PER $100 ASSESSED VALUATION
1953 - 1965

.0325

.0300

.0275

0250

.0225

.0200

.0/75

0150

Chairman POWELL. Can you introduce them now, because we might want to refer to them.

Mr. WILLIS. I would like to introduce first Dr. Virginia Lewis, assistant superintendent of schools, a former teacher and principal and district superintendent of the city of Chicago.

Mrs. Louise Daugherty, a district superintendent who has served as a teacher and principal of elementary schools.

On the end over here is Dr. Eileen Stack, who is an associate superintendent of schools who has served in many areas of the city, as all of these people have.

This is Mrs. Evelyn Carlson, another associate superintendent of schools.

Mr. Julien Drayton here is an assistant superintendent of schools, and in charge of our relationships with the poverty program and the programs that operate under it.

Over here is another young lady, Miss Dorothy Sauer, who is principal of a high school that is entering into a shared-time program this fall, after deciding on that a year ago, and we might have something of that nature to present.

There are one or two more. I think I have covered the group who will speak.

I appreciate having this opportunity to testify concerning the problems confronting the Chicago public schools over the recent years and the progress we have made in meeting them.

The school problems have had their origin in social changes and social problems. National as well as local technological changes have stimulated an upsurge of population mobility-from rural to urban centers and from urban centers to suburbia.

The increased birthrate of the 1950's and heavy immigration of families with many school-age children sent our enrollments upward sharply. Racial changes have taken place, and segregated housing patterns have affected the composition of many Chicago public schools. The school financial resources are insufficient for all that needs to be done, but nevertheless the Chicago public schools have made vast efforts of several kinds to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse school population.

What the Members of Congress and particularly the members of this committee seek is greater educational opportunity for all children each according to need. So do we in education, and I can speak especially for those of us in Chicago.

It was in such a spirit that this very committee gave impetus to the Vocational Education Act of 1963 which has opened the gate for the succeeding legislation that will further increase educational opportunity. This distinguished contribution on your part is known in the Capitol, and it is becoming increasingly well-known elsewhere.

In discussing enrollment increases, I wish first to relate them to total population statistics for Chicago. According to the census, the city of Chicago had an absolute loss in population of 70,000 between 1950 and 1960. During the same 10 years the Chicago public schools gained over 120,000 pupils.

In the 4 years since 1960, our enrollments have risen another 90,000 for a total increase of 211,000 in 14 years. The increase alone is larger than the school enrollment of all but five or six cities of America.

The accelerating rate of growth during the last 4 years is significant to our discussion. Between 1952 and 1964, the elementary schools experienced a 44-percent increase.

Between 1952 and 1961, a 10-year period, the high schools grew by 13 percent. The high school increase jumped to 36 percent between 1960 and 1964. The high school enrollments increased 45 percent between 1952 and 1964.

Combining the elementary and high school rates of increase for the crucial years 1959 to 1965 we find the rate of increase to be 21 percent or 4.2 percent per year.

The breakdown of the figures follows:

The public schools of Chicago gained 2 pupils for every 1 of the 70,000 citizens who moved out of the city between 1950 and 1960 and has gained in enrollment at an accelerated rate since 1960.

It is to be noted also that the growth in enrollment was not distributed evenly throughout the city, but took place largely in areas where in-migrants settled and in some outlying areas of the city which were sparsely settled until the close of World War II.

On this map of the city are indicated the areas where the percent of increase in the elementary school population was 60 percent or more. It is also necessary to relate the population and enrollment data to racial composition. According to the census, the Negro population constituted 2 percent of Chicago's total population in 1910, and in 1960 the Negro population constituted nearly 23 percent of the city's population.

However, data on school-age population is also relevant. Negroes comprise 34 percent of the elementary-school-age population in Chicago and 27 percent of the high-school-age group in the city. In contrast, 54 percent of the elementary school pupils was observed to be Negro in the teacher observation count of 1963 and 36 percent of the high school students was observed to be Negro.

Thus a high percentage of Negro youth attend public schools rather than private schools. The number of white pupils attending public school is about equal to the number attending private schools.